Commitment to Holiness
Notes
Transcript
Are you not from everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment,
and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.
You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
You make mankind like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
He brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net;
he gathers them in his dragnet;
so he rejoices and is glad.
Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,
and his food is rich.
Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and mercilessly killing nations forever?
I will take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
And the Lord answered me:
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
“Moreover, wine is a traitor,
an arrogant man who is never at rest.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations
and collects as his own all peoples.”
Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say,
“Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own—
for how long?—
and loads himself with pledges!”
Will not your debtors suddenly arise,
and those awake who will make you tremble?
Then you will be spoil for them.
Because you have plundered many nations,
all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.
“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house,
to set his nest on high,
to be safe from the reach of harm!
You have devised shame for your house
by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.
For the stone will cry out from the wall,
and the beam from the woodwork respond.
“Woe to him who builds a town with blood
and founds a city on iniquity!
Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts
that peoples labor merely for fire,
and nations weary themselves for nothing?
For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
“Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—
you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,
in order to gaze at their nakedness!
You will have your fill of shame instead of glory.
Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision!
The cup in the Lord’s right hand
will come around to you,
and utter shame will come upon your glory!
The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.
“What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake;
to a silent stone, Arise!
Can this teach?
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver,
and there is no breath at all in it.
But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.”
Scripture: Habakkuk 1:12-2:20
Sermon Title: Commitment to Holiness
We continue our series this morning journeying with the prophet Habakkuk. Last week, we looked at the first interaction between Habakkuk and God, and encountered Habakkuk crying out to God on behalf of the righteous, wondering if he was listening and how long he would tolerate the wickedness and sin that were twisting justice even among his people? God listened and answered him with the promise that he was going to bring the Babylonians, a terrifying enemy, to punish them. Our main focus was looking at what it means for us to wait on God and to trust that his goodness will come in the future but also in the now. Today, we pick up where we left off, listening to the second of Habakkuk’s complaints to God, his attentiveness for another answer, and God’s just response.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, there is just so much packed into these words. Habakkuk, again, expressed unshakable faith in who God is, recognized that he is in control and able to punish however he saw fit, but he wants a rationale for how the merciful God can utilize such treacherous means. God had used animal imagery in his first reply to Habakkuk, and now we see the prophet add some of his own by comparing Babylon to a greedy fisherman, a poacher who hooks and nets every helpless fish, every weak person. They celebrate and worship the means that they use for conquering. God described in chapter 1 verse 11 that the Babylonians’ strength was their god, and Habakkuk concurs; it is like they make sacrifices to their weapons and armor; they worship their military and might.
Then we get to God’s answer, and there is sophistication to how he replied. You probably noticed the repetition of the statements of five woes (v. 6, 9, 12, 15, and 19) as well as the twice-used refrain, “For you have shed man’s blood; you have destroyed land and cities and everyone in them” (v. 8 and 17). Together with the parallel phrasing, God was using a common form for a song or poem to communicate the message that Babylon will not have the final victory. There are many more repetitions and alliterations actually in God’s passage that get lost in translating from Hebrew to English. Just like when I say, “Sally sells seashells by the seashore,” and why we use seashore and not coastline, so here when this message was recorded to be read by everyone it reached, God used similar literary devices to help deliver these messages to his people so they could understand and remember them. If some this intrigues you, I encourage you to check out a commentary; I simply want us to be aware that both the imagery and language God and Habakkuk have used up to this point is very intentional because the original audience would have better comprehended and retained all that was promised to happen.
Going forward this morning, I invite you to turn your focus with me to the character of God, and specifically, his commitment to holiness. In last week’s message God we really focused in on the message’s impact in our lives: we are to wait upon God, to trust he will act. Habakkuk took that to heart, but we left him where our passage started off, waiting for a rationale as to how the merciful God can utilize such treacherous means. “Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” “Is he,” Babylon, Habakkuk asks, “to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?” The answer to his questions and to the questions we might have for a God who allows and even uses great evils to take out lesser evils is that we have a God who is committed to holiness. We are going to dwell for the most part in chapter 2, looking at three key verses by which God teaches us more about the character of his holiness, but first, what is God’s holiness?
Holiness is rooted in the Hebrew word “kadosh,” which means something that is sacred, something that is set apart from other things or other beings. When we think about it in regards to God, we are thinking about holiness in its purest form—God cannot be tainted by sin nor is he dependent on anything or anyone. A word that comes to mind when you think of “holiness” might be glory, but these are not one and the same. Glory is more of the expression of wonder designated as a result of recognition and awe in someone or something. Certainly, we would say that God’s holiness, his sacredness deserves worship and receiving of glory, but glory describes, whereas holiness is an essential quality. If you are wondering how God’s people or we get the word “holy” attached to us, it is not that we are ascending to the level of true purity or becoming less dependent on God, but rather it expresses how we are set apart and growing away from and resisting sin and evil in our lives.
God alone is perfectly holy, the standard for righteousness and not dependent on anything else. One thing God teaches us further in this passage is that his holiness is experienced in and by his creation. In chapter 2 verse 4, we find the well-known phrase that Paul picks up and used several times in the New Testament, “The righteous will live by his faith.” God started off this second reply by wanting his words to be read by many; these are things he, the one true God, is promising to do, and they should literally have his word copied for all. Up to this point, Babylon has been the ruthless, undefeated, and seemingly undefeatable victor, but God now proclaims the circumstances leading to Babylon’s destruction. In verses 4 through 6, God summarizes, Babylon is puffed up, they desire what should not be desired, their consumption of alcohol ruins them, their lifestyle is like the grave or like death. There is nothing life-giving about this people; their only end is empty destruction.
But, again, God proclaims in the midst of this, “The righteous will live by his faith.” He is saying, “Unlike Babylon, unlike the wicked who trust in themselves, who have put their all into their own strength, the righteous man will live by his faith. He will live by his trust and hope in that which comes from outside of himself that he cannot do this on his own.” On the surface, this verse is simply contrasting Babylon’s path with the path or life, of those who follow God. God is going to use Babylon to punish his own people, many of whom were not living by faith, but one day her self-destructive tendencies will bring about her own end. What is beneath the surface is not just that Babylon’s rulers, military, and lifestyle will bring her downfall, but this is all very much part of God’s plan because of their ongoing disregard for him.
God in his holiness will not stand indefinitely for those who seek only power and wealth and conquest. God in his holiness will bring about the destruction and the end of people and nations who do not trust in him. God’s commitment to holiness desires for all of creation to bow down to him and seek after him. He alone is the Creator, the Life-giver, and the true Gatherer of all nations and peoples. Those that turn away from God and who live without any regard for him are not out of his hands; rather they will continue to experience God, both in times of his mercy and times of his wrath. Whether one goes about their days seeking their own ends or God’s, God’s holiness is active among both the righteous and the unrighteous.
Not only is God active among all peoples, but the second point God makes is that the knowledge of his holiness is in process; the knowledge of God’s holiness is in process. In chapter 2 verse 14, we read, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” What I mean by being in process is that not only is our God at work in the world, but more and more people will come to know and confess that he is the one behind his works of justice and redemption. Whether you wholeheartedly believe in God, whether you admit a God exists but are unchanged, or you follow false gods, all people will come to see his holy actions in this world as his alone, whether in this life or in the life to come.
When we began, I mentioned “glory” and “holiness” are not one and the same, and using the phrasing of verse 14 it might seem like I am trying to pull a fast one; this is not the case. The reason for using similar language is because I want us to read this truth its context. We can readily profess, that the earth is and will continue to be filled with the knowledge of God’s glory, with the wonder of his creativity and grace, but we also can profess that his holiness, the reason for the upcoming destruction of Babylon, is also expanding. Verse 14 is at the center of the woes, the woes which are not just words of caution, but rather God intended them, as we read in verse 6, as taunts from the nations and peoples that Babylon has conquered. Just like a hardcore sport’s fan taunts a rival team, it is as if we could read God giving these words to the defeated, “Go ahead, Babylon, keep making these mistakes, keep going about life without any care or regard for your victims. The ways you ridicule them will one day be the way you get made fun of. It is a long fall from glory!” God is rooting for the underdogs because while they might have deserved punishment and defeat like Judah, Babylon showed no mercy.
These taunts are not just jeers against Babylon; they let us in on the things that God hates, things which are an offense against God’s holiness so that Judah and all God’s people might know what he wants for life and culture. Let us look at the first four briefly. The first, verses 6 through 8, God warns and tears Babylon down for being thieves and extorting others’ money; for driving people into debt and making them victims of poverty. In verses 9 through 11, he lays into them for the way they have risen to the top and fortified themselves at the expense of others. Verses 12 and 13, God proclaims that the foundation of their cities is an acceptance of killing and crime; they have no value for life itself. The fourth woe, verses 15 through 17, God judges the way they use alcohol, maybe both literally and figuratively, how they would give to others drinks or possessions or anything else that might serve as an illusion or a taste that they were great; but Babylon’s intent has always been simply to shame and humiliate and take what they wanted without discretion.
It is telling, I believe, that in chapter 1 verse 11 God labeled the Babylonians as “guilty men.” They were at fault for exalting their own glory and their own vision of what holiness is; they had set themselves apart by seeking to conquer and ravage the nations. Amidst the atrocities they committed, which Habakkuk and all of Judah were to experience firsthand, God promises, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.” His work was going to be evident, and more and more people will rightfully attribute his redeeming and perfecting work to him. As God later brought destruction upon Babylon, an end to their temporary glory, the almighty God deserves to be glorified for his holy actions. While there are times when God’s holiness must be exercised in his wrath, he truly desires for all people, though guilty, to recognize his perfection and glorify him, that his holiness may come in mercy.
The third detail we look at together this morning is that God’s holiness demands reverence. The last verse of chapter 2, the final statement of God to Habakkuk in this prophesy, “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” This does not mean that God does not desire our singing, our music, our voices raised in shouts of praise, but it means that God can be glorified as well in our devoted silence. Silence in worship reminds us that it is not about us or what we do, but rather we have the opportunity to hear and see God’s clear proclamation for what has gone before and what is yet to come.
The fifth woe, in verses 18 and 19, gives us an interesting contrast for this. The Babylonians are warned and taunted for their idol worship. God proclaims, “Idols…cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’” And then God proclaims that we need not utter a word. It is not that he is putting an end to our praying, praising, or petitioning, but our God needs no coaxing or wake-up call from us; he does not need a complaint to act! God reminds Habakkuk, Judah, all peoples, including us today, that he is faithful to watch over and to help in his time.
When we face struggles and look upon injustices, it is not God’s desire to be cruel to his people. We serve and believe in a holy God; he is loving and righteous. The prophet Isaiah records in the 55th chapter of his book, in verses 8 and 9, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” Those are not words to belittle us, to make us feel like none of the things we care about are cared about by God. They are words of comfort; before he says those things, he says, “Come,” to the thirsty and the poor and the hungry and the unsatisfied, “Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live… Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”
Boys and girls, I am sure we have at some point heard our parents tell us to be quiet. They tell us that because it is a time to listen to them or to someone else we can learn from; they have instructions that are meant for us to hear and to follow. When we obey right teachings, we grow and can live more healthy and desirable lives. Just as there are times for children to be quiet, so there are times for all of us to be silent before our heavenly Father. Whether in the midst of lament or celebration, there are times where God seeks for us to listen to him. The ultimate authority that he has, why he deserves to be listened to, is part of his holiness.
One of the things that God’s people are prone to do is to equate themselves with God. From the patriarchs to the wandering Israelites to the nations of Israel and Judah and through to the church, sin leads us to think that we are undeserving of any punishment; that our holiness is in the same measure as God’s. I encourage us to not make that mistake, the mistake of saying we don’t deserve to be punished or wiped out, that elitist mentality that I have referred to before, by which we can so quickly come to think we are more perfect and deserving of faith and grace than others. Brothers and sisters, as our God, the only true holy God, puts his work and himself on display for all to know, may we understand our place on the footsteps and in the temple courts, gathered in the presence of the Almighty God to be a complete work of his grace. May we seek to not take his throne or his altar, but to watch and listen for what he will teach and reveal. Amen.